This Year's Christmas Letter
Happy Holidays 2019! So I originally started this letter the day before Thanksgiving. It was a Wednesday full of hope. Our holiday cards had arrived in the mail, they were almost ready to send out. Jean and I were going on a vacation on Saturday and if we sent the letters out before we left, we'd finally beat Elizabeth Galloway in sending out the first cards of the season! And then I checked the mailbox... Well, maybe next year. So this missive has been waiting for a week, because we had better things to do. Jean and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in June this year, and Jean had a birthday at the end of November, so we decided we would celebrate by having a week alone on the island of Anguilla. It's a little island just north of St. Martin, which I believe we own. The people there did not believe so (agree to disagree, but we wound up having to wash a lot of dishes after THAT meal). The hotel Jean chose was marvelous with a 300 year old Thai spa building, walk in beaches, a trio of pools and local lobster everywhere. It was a fantastic trip where we both unwound and relaxed. Plus I was able to beg out of going to Las Vegas for a second time this year, which was a big plus. Aly stayed at our house with Jack and Scout, and they had a whole week of what I'm sure were wild parties, staying up late, and pooping in the house. (We're pretty sure Aly didn't poop in the house) Speaking of Aly, she is doing great, still living in DC in her townhouse, and comes home every couple of weeks to spend the night and visit, which we all love. She changed jobs this year from her first finance job at Centurion to a larger firm doing roughly the same things at a larger scale. The new place is called Sullivan, Bruyette, Speros & Blayley (or SBSB for short). Trivia: they are one of the only firms named after four dudes not either suing or defending the president. She seems to like the new job, the growing responsibilities, and the new place. It's also in Tysons Corner, so same commute for her. This year she'll be doing our taxes! Which I am most excited about since last year I did our taxes!!! She has traveled a good bit this year. She and her friend Sean came with us on Spring Break to visit with Matt and Brenna and see Jean's old haunting grounds in San Diego. Speaking of travel, we started off the year in Arizona with last Christmas' visit to Mom and Ron and Chad and Sharon and Sawyer and Stelly, followed by Spring Break in San Diego, an early trip in June to the beach where the AZ crew joined us once again and all of Jean's family shared a couple of beach houses in Rehoboth, DE. Jean and Jack took Grandma Fanti to the beach later in the summer. Jean and I had our trip last week. And we will again wrap up this year with a trip out to an AirBnB in Flagstaff AZ with the western Martins. We have also visited up in PA with Jean's niece Emily and Kyle and their two kiddos. Cousin "Ack" loves to play with cousin Liam and new baby sister Anna. Speaking of Jack, Jack-o has had a good year as well. He has continued to play soccer with FCV, his travel club. He's moved around a bit in position but most of the year has played in the midfield. The team has mostly been together for three whole seasons now and it has been interesting to see all the boys growing and maturing, speeding up and slowing down, outgrowing their uniforms, and starting to sound more like a pack of horses galloping by than little kids. I think the sound of the game has dropped an octave at least. Jack has grown probably 6 or 7 inches this year, and is starting his emo phase, telling us to "Shut up!!!", pulling his hoodie strings tight and slamming his door whenever we speak to him. Hopefully this is a phase. He's continuing to do great in school, and his proudest accomplishment this year has been getting Arthur Morgan back to the ranch with high enough honor to die peacefully watching the sunset. Hopefully those of you who play video games will be excited by this. He's again in the band this year, but not for trombone, he has switched to percussion. So it's drums of one sort or another, with two hours of practice a week on drums or piano. My conference call friends and clients love when he's practicing piano in the background while we're talking. They have not commented on the drum playing. He's got great teachers this year, and is in Spanish II where they are finally doing some real Spanish, so we have been speaking some spanglish at home to help out. I'm looking forward to travelling to another Spanish speaking country soon to immerse some more. He has been very active this year and enjoys spending his afternoons checking his homework with Jean. Speaking of Jean, she has been continuing to enjoy retirement, lavishing most of her attention on Jack, Aly, and I which none of us are complaining about! She has also taken up sailing this year, and has passed her first certification exam toward Captain! So if any of you have a 27 foot sailboat you need captained, I know just the person. She has been out probably a dozen times this year all told. We've been out together as a family and she's taken the kids, and we chartered one afternoon with our friends Tracy and Jim. It's a passion for her. We got to spend a day on a 53' sailboat down in Anguilla and she was able to work the sails, steer the ship, trim the jib, batten down the hatches, hoist her own petard, and... I want to say... shiver her timbers? Anyway, she's the sailor, not me. I had a fun boat ride and we ate Mahi Mahi for lunch on a beach in St.Martin with some Frenchies, so what's not to like? Speaking of me, what happened this year with me? Well, I wasn't the whistleblower, so everyone please stop asking. It was also only a coincidence that I was in the Federal Detention facility where Jeffrey Epstein "committed suicide." I did not announce a new triangular 8-bit pickup truck with unbreakable windows. I committed no collusion. I received no quid pro quo! I did enjoy working this year like I have not enjoyed it in a long, long time. The position I started with Cloudability last September worked out terrifically well. I really enjoy so many of the people I am working with and the customers I get to help with their use of the Cloud. It's very hands on, it is constantly changing and it's super interesting to me so I get to be curious for pay every day, which is great. Cloudability was acquired in June of this year. I'm not as excited about the new company, but I continue to enjoy the work and my customers. During the second half of the year, I was also able to work as part of a team to create a new global certification for FinOps (the thing we do). We wrote a class, wrote a test, and I have given the day long session about 5 times so far this year, with three more sessions planned through February. I'm really enjoying working with a bunch of customers who are interested in what we're doing. It is more travel for me, but so far that's workable, and Jean is thankfully able to cover for me whenever I've had to be away. So that's about it for the Martins this year. We hope that you are happy and well, and that you enjoy your holiday season and your upcoming 2020. I will say that I, for one, can TOTALLY believe it's already 2020. Love from us to you.